Neuroscientists find that trying harder makes it more difficult to learn some aspects of language. When it comes to learning languages, adults and children have different strengths. Adults excel at absorbing the vocabulary needed to navigate a grocery store or order food in a restaurant, but children have an uncanny ability to pick up on subtle nuances of language, sometimes speaking a second language like a native speaker within months. Brain structure plays an important role in this "sensitive

This slide deck illustrates over 50 different language learning teaching strategies. While these ideas were originally shared in the context of learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) they easily transfer to the learning of other languages as well.

While our initial intent was to create opportunities for our ESL students to practice written and spoken fluency, what happened as we presented these stories–most of which were about the decision to come to American–audience changed everything. Giving the kids a stage resulted in the collateral benefit of empathy and new understanding from the students who have lived their lives in Springfield.

Mainstream Springfield students got to know the quiet ESL kids in their classes through a different lens.

The stories, with their themes of loneliness, fear, and sacrifice, fostered genuine respect for these students’ hardships and struggles. And for how hard they have to work to catch up.

I decided to try something new. I asked my students to complete a homework assignment using Twitter this week. I was a little nervous beforehand based on the fact that my students this year really had not warmed to the idea of using Twitter as a valuable learning tool. My students, and probably some of yours, feel Twitter is a generic FaceBook. Needless to say, I presented the homework idea with enthusiasm, and hoped for the best, but was quite unsure of the outcome.

Graphics visually describe meaning of 20 French words and phrases as they are spoken by a native French speaker. (Interesting classroom assignment might be to have students design graphics and create similar video series.)

What does English sound like to non-English speakers? After more than 40 years, Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol” remains one of the most illuminating examples. Prepare to rock out and sorta kinda rap with an Italian comedian:

When teaching grammar, guest blogger Steve Peha gets rid of the jargon and focuses on patterns.

Since grammar is the study of sentence construction, focusing on the sentence, in a way that doesn't depend on explicit grammatical knowledge, is the key to teaching an otherwise difficult set of concepts successfully to groups of diverse learners.

Preface by Tim Ferriss I've written about how I learned to speak, read, and write Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish. I've also covered my experiments with German, Indonesian, Arabic, Norwegian, Turkish, and perhaps a dozen others.

LangMedia has a special mission to provide materials in languages less-commonly offered by colleges and universities in the United States. The site also has a commitment to providing authentic materials depicting differences in regional dialects and language-usage among speakers of the more commonly taught languages worldwide.

Gabriel Wyner was tasked with learning four languages in the past few years for his career as an opera singer, and in the process landed on "a pretty damn good method for language learning that you can do in limited amounts of spare time." Here's the four-step method that you can use, too (and you don't have to invest hundreds in a language course like Rosetta Stone).

The Global Language Monitor estimates that there are currently 1,009,753 words in the English language. Despite this large lexicon, many nuances of human experience still leave us tongue-tied. And that’s why sometimes it’s necessary to turn to other languages to find le mot juste. Here are fifteen foreign words with no direct English equivalent.

Welcome to fluentin3months.com, a site packed with encouragement and “language hacks” about speaking languages as quickly as possible, as I travel to learn and speak languages myself.

After almost nine years on the road, I have picked up quite a lot of short-cuts, unconventional learning techniques, and a pretty good mentality that has hugely helped me to learn these languages, and earn the title of “polyglot”. This site is for sharing these tips so that others may also live their dreams of being able to speak other languages!

This wiki has been set up for languages teachers who are interested in using more technology with their students. Have a browse around to get some ideas, tips and links for using different online applications as well as things like iPods and video cameras. You can use the menu at the side, or the icons here on the front page.Please note that most of the information here is based on what I have done in my own classroom, so is by no means exhaustive. I have tried to put down as much of my experience and ideas as I can. I hope you find it useful! - Jess.

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